


Blood Brothers

by MaryPSue



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Balance Arc, Gen, Self-Harm, but not really they're just swapping blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 20:59:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11859555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryPSue/pseuds/MaryPSue
Summary: Two times Magnus proposed a blood pact, and Taako thought it was stupid (then did it anyway).





	Blood Brothers

It’s 3am (probably; time moves a little differently in the space between planes) onboard the Starblaster when Magnus turns to Taako (who is facedown on the table and has been for the last half hour) and says, “We should make a blood pact.”

It’s the first thing he’s said in that half hour that actually gets Taako to raise his head off the table. He doesn’t say anything, just stares at Magnus with a blank expression.

“Y’know, Barry and Lup have their lich thing, and that’s super cool and all, I don’t want in on that, but...I think we should do something too. Kind of like that. So we all have some kind of connection.”

Taako keeps staring for a long moment, and Magnus is just starting to think that maybe he’s actually asleep and elves just have a super weird version of sleepwalking that includes not moving and staring blankly at people, when he opens his mouth and says, “We’re magically bound to an interplanar starship that literally runs on our interpersonal connections, my dude.”

“Yeah, I know, I just...” Magnus shrugs, twirling his mug of beer on the table. The last plane had had some really good breweries. He hopes some of them survived. “I thought it’d be nice if we could...make it official? Like, something we did on purpose, instead of just found out about after we ran away from the total destruction of our home.”

Taako looks down at his own mug, which has been empty for the last half hour.

“Yeah, sure,” he says, finally. “Let’s do it, big guy.”

...

Lucretia’s out cold and won’t wake up no matter how many times Magnus yells “MAGNUS!” in her ear, Cap’nport’s still not talking to anybody or leaving the wheel after the narrow escape on the last plane, Lup set Taako’s hat on fire when he tried to wake her up, Merle’s back in his bunk with one of the hops plants they’d taken from the last plane (and _nobody_  wants to walk in on whatever’s going on in there), and Barry, when they wake him up, says, “Isn’t sharing blood kind of unhygienic?”, so in the end it’s just Taako and Magnus sitting on the floor of the Starblaster’s kitchen with a mound of towels and Magnus’ grandfather’s knife.

“This better not scar,” Taako warns Magnus, conjuring a little flame on the tip of one finger. Magnus runs the blade through it, sterilizing it, and then presses it to the tip of his left index finger. “Maybe I like you enough to be your blood brother, but I definitely don’t like you enough to permanently mar my beautiful visage for you.”

“I’m not cutting open your _face_ ,” Magnus says. “Here, gimme your hand.”

Taako makes a big fuss when Magnus cuts open the pad of his finger, but once it’s done he just stares at the bead of blood oozing up like he doesn’t know what to do with it.

“So what do we do with this now, hombre?” he asks, and Magnus realises he hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“I think we just kinda smear them together?” he says.

Taako shrugs, and holds out his hand. “Do your worst.”

...

 

...

It’s a few nights after their ordeal in that monumental dickhead Lucas’ lab that Magnus says, out of nowhere, “We should make a blood pact.”

“A wait, a _what_  now?” Taako asks, putting down his magazine. Maybe he misheard - he was pretty absorbed in the latest runway collections from Neverwinter, he’d _kill_  for those holographic go-go boots from Bitsey Baggins’ pre-spring, when will Fantasy Costco ever -

“A blood pact?” Magnus repeats. “Like where you swap blood, and then you -”

“I know what a blood pact is, homie,” Taako says. He glances over at Merle, who looks pretty much as unimpressed by this idea as Taako is. “ _Why_?”

Magnus shrugs. “Y’know, we’ve been through a lot together, and...I’ve never had a brother, so maybe I’m talking out my ass, but I think if I did, he couldn’t be better than you guys.”

Taako blinks. 

“Wow, that’s actually, genuinely sweet of you,” he says. “And I’m still not helping you smuggle a dog onto the moon. You want a cat, maybe we can talk, but I’m _not_ keeping a secret dog in this room.”

“What? No!” Magnus says, sounding offended. “I mean, yeah, it would be cool if you guys would be chill with a dog - but I’m not trying to butter you up. I actually think we should do something cool to symbolise our bond.” 

“You go right on ahead,” Merle says, scooping up his pyjamas in both arms - the meat one and the tree one. “I’m going to bed.”

“Aww, Merle,” Magnus whines, like a little kid, and Merle shakes his head.

“Nope. Last time I let you near me with a bladed weapon -” He doesn’t finish the sentence, just waves his tree arm, nearly dropping his pyjamas in the process.

“I saved your _life_!” Magnus shouts, just as Merle yells, “You cut my freakin’ arm off!”

Taako sighs, and picks his magazine back up.

...

He waits until Merle and Magnus are actually in bed and the lights are all off. The glowy stars that Magnus stuck to the ceiling of their room let off a soft, soothing light, not enough to see by, just enough for Taako to stare at, to feel that calming sense of familiarity wash over him. He’s not sure why, but something about those stupid plastic glow-in-the-dark stars makes this big, elegant, maybe-a-little-overwhelming-sometimes room feel more like home.

“You know,” he says, before he can think better of it, still staring at the ceiling, “I’ve never had any siblings either, but if I did, I’d definitely want them to be like you guys.”

He immediately regrets it when Magnus makes That Noise that he makes whenever anyone mentions puppies. “Aww, Taako, that’s -”

“Never to be repeated outside this room,” Taako interrupts. “But if you really want to do this stupid blood pact thing...aw, fuck it. Why not, right? The worst that can happen is we’ll both get fantasy tetanus.”

“Yes!” Magnus all but shouts. There’s a bump and a _crash_  that makes Taako flinch, and then the lights all blaze on. 

“ _Magnus_ ,” Merle grumbles.

“C’mon, Merle! Taako’s doing it!” Magnus rummages through his armour, sitting on the trunk nearest his bed, opening a pouch and pulling out his grandfather’s knife. “You don’t want _Taako_  to be braver than you, do you?”

“Hey, I resemble that remark,” Taako says, but he pushes the covers back and rolls reluctantly out of bed. “This better not take too long or I’m going to fall asleep in the middle of it,” he warns Magnus, who’s beaming ear to ear as he approaches with the knife.

“Last chance, Merle!” Magnus says, ignoring Taako.

Merle shakes his head. “You boys have fun, I’m sitting this one out. And I’d _appreciate_  it if you’d put the lights out and let me _sleep_.”

“It’ll just be a minute,” Magnus promises. “Hey, Taako, can you whip up a fireball or something? I gotta sterilize this, the last time I used it was to carve that duck.”

Taako holds out a hand, conjures a ball of fire a few inches above the palm. Magnus passes the knife through it, and Taako closes his hand into a fist, extinguishing the fireball.

“This better not scar,” he says, holding out his hand, and then blinks. Magnus is looking at him strangely. He feels kind of strange himself. 

“Man, I wish Pringles were here,” Magnus says, finally, and the world spins right on its axis.

“What, you want to make _Pringles_  part of our blood pact?” Taako says, pressing his free hand to his chest while Magnus carefully, gingerly slices open the pad of his index finger. “Y’know, my dude, maybe I don’t want to do this after all.”

“No, no!” Magnus says, grabbing Taako’s hand and drawing the knife across his index finger as well. There’s a momentary sting, and Taako hisses in a breath. 

“What, are you trying to take _my_ arm off, too?”

“I tried to warn you!” Merle says, from his bunk, muffled by his pillow.

Magnus just grins, and presses his bleeding index finger against Taako’s. “Blood brothers!” he says, beaming, and Taako can’t help but smile himself.

“Blood brothers,” he agrees.

...

Merle refuses to heal their cuts, pretending to be asleep instead (complete with totally over-the-top fake snoring), and Taako’s never bothered learning much healing magic and would rather not accidentally turn his best f- Magnus into a towering column of living, seething flesh by accident, so he bandages them up instead.

He’s washing out the cut on Magnus’ finger when he notices the thin white line of scar tissue right next to it. “Did you seriously get such a deep paper cut that it scarred?” he jokes, pressing his finger against it. 

Magnus looks down, and frowns. “I...don’t remember,” he says, slow, then grabs Taako’s hand. “Hey, you’ve got one too.”

“What? No, my man, I’ve definitely never been stupid enough to -” Taako starts, and then looks, really _looks_  at his hand.

Sure enough, right beside the fresh cut that Magnus had made, there’s a single, neat, precise white line of scar tissue. Somehow he’s never noticed it before.

As soon as he looks away, the memory of what he was just looking at slips out of his grasp.

“Better wrap that up,” he says, to Magnus, with the unpleasant sensation that he’s just lost the thread of an important conversation. “Fantasy infections are serious business, my dude. And _I_  may be naturally gifted in the appearance department, but _you_  need your beauty sleep.”

Magnus just keeps staring at his hand.

“Yeah,” he says, finally. “Yeah. You’re right.”

...

For some reason, staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars doesn’t bring the same comfort tonight as it usually does. 

Taako still lies awake, staring, until the rosy glow of sunrise starts to fill the stateroom.


End file.
